Budapest Day 5/Travel to Vienna
In my mind, I had basically blocked off this entire day as a travel day, but as my train didn’t leave until 4PM - and there is no such thing as TSA when boarding a train, I really had a full day in front of me in Budapest which I hadn’t planned on. Having hit most of the attractions I had planned on seeing, I wanted to check out Margaret Island, which is an island on the Danube between Buda and Pest. The island is mostly a large park, with a few different points of interest along the way - so I walked the whole thing - which ended up being around 10miles there and back, with some zigzagging in between. Given it was winter, the island was pretty sleepy, with some runners and a few other wandering tourists, but you could tell in the summer this place gets a little crazy. There is another thermal bath on the island, as well as a spa/hotel, but on the shore of the Pest side there was a stretch of buildings that were shut down for winter that consisted of beer garden after beer garden, with a few party hostels sprinkled in. I can only imagine the shenanigans that you might stumble upon in summer. In all, the island was great, and was a very peaceful walk through the otherwise pretty miserable day weather-wise.
As I was taking the tram to the train station, I struck up a conversation with an older Hungarian man, who was very nice, but was incredulous that I would have heard of Hungary from all the way in Colorado. I spent a good portion of my commute chatting with him, and he told me that when he was my age he did the same thing, except he came to visit the states and offered some nice words to encouragement on my journey. I was a little nervous about the train station, as I had mentioned in a previous post as I had read some not so glowing reviews online (I was not taking off from Budapest’s central station, but instead a station situated somewhat in the suburbs). However, I found a very modern and newly renovated station that was easy to navigate, if lacking in places to sit.
Compared to flying, traveling by train is a joy. No security, no hassle, just jump on when the train comes in, find your seat and you’re off. The cars were very comfortable, and I enjoyed a nice Austrian beer and a chicken schnitzel as we trekked towards Vienna at over 100mph. By the time I reached my hotel in Vienna, it was pretty late, and nearly everything near the hotel had shut down, but I was pleasantly surprised with an inch of snow covering the ground, which along with all of the Christmas lights and the Vienna architecture, made it feel incredibly festive. Not much to report so far on Vienna, but tomorrow I am heading down to St. Stephen’s Square to do some exploring there.
